214 



THE GARDENERS 



CHRONICLE 



— 



— — 



in a dry nanny Ukui md on -a well draii i bottom, these 

 evils have not pm ited themselves, tin lees by tfecident. 

 I do not tin.! a ngle note of failure in regard to fcm- 

 tafcning. If a branch gums ami dies under this system, 

 a young shoot may be laid in or an old branch made to 

 fill its place, and the space is filled up as if nothing had 

 happened. Iu summer a few young shoots should be 

 nailed in, in case of accident. Tins is, however, not 

 the only advantage which fan-training possesses ; ior 

 when the tree is young, nearly all the shoots may be 

 nailed in, and in a few years we have a fine tree full of 

 neat fruiting spars; a little care being required to 

 regulate the branches m either side, and to give the 

 extreme points a tendency upwards, so that the sap may 

 divide it !f equally. The same rules should be carried 

 out in regard to training the Plum on this system. 

 By this means the tree may be brought into a bearing 

 afcate much sooner, and a tine head Ob ined in less 

 time. The &d Orleans Plum is, perhaps, one of the 

 best for horizontal training. The Greengage, too, makes 

 a 1 tree readily, but it soon presents unsightly spurs. 

 Many of the new Plums require to have their sap better 

 distributed, or we have ft long robust shoot on one side, 

 and a weak one on the other. In some soils and situa- 

 tions they grow more equally ; but when the tree begins 

 toestaMish itself, it then throws out strong useless shoots 

 from and near the stt m, especially if the branch is on a 

 curve, as somethm is the case in such a situation. If 

 the previous rules on fan training are carried out, the 

 sap will be equally diffused over the whole tree. W. 

 CuiverweU, r Fhoi"p Perrow. 



Spanish Chest . - I can State, for the information of 



Stfr correspondent, that I have felled two Spanish 

 lesunut trees of apparently 6D or 70 years' growth, 

 Jted «seasuring, in round timber, from 30 to 40 fe<?t 

 each. One of these grew in my garden, the other in a 

 eappice near, on the Kentish rag-stone hills. The 

 Spanish Chestnut is well known in Kent, where it is 

 generally planted for I lop-poles, -which are of the first 

 quality. The trees in question, though of vigorous 

 growth and apparently sound while standing, proved 

 both of them nearly worthless as timber ;'fiot so much 

 as a gate post could be cut from them, the wood eoKting 

 tod splitting throughout. The best of it was at last 

 Used as a wall plate xo carry the ratters of a stable, it 

 would bear so much shaping. S. S. 



Roeku- < > rk. — I want a composition to wash a mass of 

 artificial rock in a plant house, of a good colour to har- 

 monise with foliage, wet or dry, and not to wash off. 

 Portland cement dries too pale, and Roman is too "dirt 

 colour." M IL [Mix Portland cement with soot, 



6r fine cinder dnst.] 



Effect of S<»wc Uptot Orchard Tnes, applied as a 

 Top-dressing and the Hoot. — Early in February of last 

 year I put in 150 high standards, including nearly everv 

 Variety of Apple, Pear, Plum, and Cherry ; also .Mul- 

 berry and YV nut ; the trees being generally six or 

 eight years old. In the summer most of them bore a 

 Kttle fruit ; they were dressed as above with >ea-weed 

 (of wh h there is abundance on my shore), 'contrary to 

 the advice of all around me ; and, notwithstanding the 

 fruit b ie, it is a fair subject of inquiry, whether" sea- 

 weed may be beneficial or otherwise to fruit trees. X Y. 

 [There is no doubt about u> being useful.] 



P™ ; Ms from C .—About 10 years ago 



I planted a < dar of Lebanon, with other ornamei d 

 trees, in a large field in front of my house. It 1ms 

 prospered there to Si h an extant, that although I have 

 twice moved the rnifcg with which it is surrounded, its 

 boughs are now ain * hm reach of sheep. What 

 must I do with it I I cannot go on extending tte fence 

 year after year until a tolerably sized garden is en- 

 closed. Nurserymen advise me to allow the fence to 

 remain as it is. so bat. t.hf» bIioot mnv o*f fU a ^«^„ «* 



o 



l_ 



more sti igth wid be thrown into t 

 What think you of this advice, or she**™ x DH ui^ u W ie 

 boughs with a kni I Will the lower boughs die in 

 course of time I J . T. C. [We think the advice of the 

 nurserymen right.] 



Broc> .—As the season for sowing Broccoli seed is 

 now at hand, I take the opportunity of again recom- 

 mending every gardener who can do so to procure 

 ■ftow's super! autumn Broccoli, which is by far th< 

 best of its season ttet hUte come under my notice. To 

 ensure the genuine sort I always obtain m seed direct 

 from Mr. Snow, whose address is West Park, Selsoe, 

 ifcxis. Ihis sort alone furnished me with a regular 

 supply Of eornpact hellfe, as white and as sweeps a 

 Cauliflower, from the middle of November to th» 

 middle oi February ; it is therefore m 

 to a gentleman's garden. J. B. WIMng. 



Stove <A quatic9.~The Ndumbimn of the Caspian 

 grows in tile waters of the Delta of the Volga, a dav 

 journey at least below Astrakan. The climate "is 

 infinitely eoMer than that of the same latitude in France 

 rg «ie winter, and proportionally hotter in the 

 Summer \Y hieh of the blue Water-Lilres is likely to 

 require the least heat, and how are they certainly dis- 

 femgmshed \ What species is the pink Water-Lily of the 

 W est Indies I Is not Casptoum as good Latin 

 cum, Vir-imcum, k.c. ! If one winter's exper 

 sufficient authority. AsnirHcti»« r*v»^ u~ .jj.j 



stellata is very tender. Is IS. scutifolia still in cnlti- 

 vtfcon ?] 



Tr<rp(colum fu hefimkm* 



small 



tuberosum, if put into a strong bottom heat, would send many persons have for years profited"^? 



up a flowering shoot at once, before it had time to think, ledge, there are many more who hav P ^ % W 



as it were, of meandering and morphoiogizing till the lesson the disaster teaches. Ther** ^ 



October as usual, before it chose to organise flower — +u -* *»- rf --'- ■ 



buds. The bulb was potted tricolorum fashion in a 



little pot, within a larger, and plunged in a bark bed. 



The first shoot produced four flowers at once, when a 



foot or two high, after this it rambled and grew wood 



without flowers, as I anticipated. MicklewelL 



Size of Cmifers.— The following is a list of the prin- 

 cipal Conifers' grown here, some of which have attained 

 a larsre size 



When 



planted. 



1832 

 1842 

 18HG 

 1831 

 1839 

 1843 

 1840 

 1833 

 1839 

 1848 

 1843 



I8tf*> 



1846 



Name, 



it 



tt 



i* 



. ■ 



. . . 



.. . 



Abies Roufjlasii 



Ifenziesii 



Smithii 



Deorfara 



Webbiaoa 



Frazeri 

 Pinua insignia 

 „ Ombra 



^, taarioa 

 „ macrocarpa i 



,, Massoniana 

 Cryptomeria Japotiica 



Taxodium sempervirens 

 Araa^aria imbne^t*. 



• ip 



• * • 



■ • i 



• • • 



• t i 



- • ■ 



■ ■ • 



• t f 



it* 



»ii 



. . • 



* • • 



• it 



« • • 



**, 



• • • 



Hirfi 



■ ■ * 



* • • 



* • • 



« • • 



til 



... 



• »• 



• If 



• I • 



I I * 



Feet. 

 45 

 9 



ml 



16 



m 



34* 



25i 

 24 



14 

 13 

 12 







disaster teaches. Th^.™ l ">iM 

 iailure m eertain looUiti?^ ? - 

 stand the winter and spring u w k, T of P^W 

 from causes which xnighfbe fJCS. "^0^ 

 S^^t^ 111 ^ ■ «-». be grown and ij*^ 



afford 



the 



Diam. 



Feet. 

 25 



8 



6 

 21 

 10 



6 

 28 

 12 



11 



20 



12 



! ll 



10 



7h 



is 



you 



Charles Barclay, Btory Hill, near Dorking^ Surrey. 

 The Chrysanthemum, a Spring Plant. — -I send 

 two Chrysanthemums, blooms from one of a couple of 

 plants which I have now coming into strong flower 

 on the young wood of last autumn. If the circumstance 

 i.s at all unusual, and you think the specimens good, and 

 the time of flowering desirable, I will send you a 

 nwoiorandum of the experiment, which was made with 

 a view of getting the plants to perfect their seeds. 

 MicMevjell. [ The blooms were beautiful, and the experi- 

 ment is very curious and interesting. Pray send us 

 the account.] 



open air with tolerable success, m^ , 

 planted in such a situation that the Z£ ** * 

 winter and early spring does not shine" uH* 



ng RhododendroT* ^ 

 rmng the day following VL 



vided it be not too severest© plants showin *J2» * 

 may preserve them ; while others, not v2^ 

 perish, or are. much mutilated. Any ordinarf^ 

 will here remark, how much less danW 

 rienced by vegetation, if a cloudy or «L> 

 follow the preceding night's frost. Upon tfikn!L? 

 the gardener waters his French Beans fer' ^^ 

 after a sharp frost, with what benefit 'seed not u 

 tioned. The fact is patent. Now, there a« bLl 

 of plants, the culture of which would be rend»l* 

 more satisfactory in the open air, by simply mM?H 

 the principle of what I here alluded to. Thev«yW? 

 fuland not sufficiently known Chinese plant t?-^* 

 nudiflorum, suffers much by the faint suns 'of2 

 and February, when a bright day succeeds frT^ 

 mass of rich blossoms in the open air in mitim*. 

 not to be lightly mentioned. Yet the claims of fa ' 



Rain, etc., at Itchtn Abbot {Hants.) 



Quantity Days 

 of on which 

 1350. Rwi. Rain fell. 



March 0.18 



April 5.06 



May 2.55 



June 1.85 



July 3.92 



Augubt 2.54 



"Can inl over 16.10 



* 1 1 



• • « 



• •• 



i • • 



5 

 13 

 17 



8 

 15 

 19 



77 



1850. 



Brought over 

 September 



Quantity Dav 6 

 of on which 

 Rain. Rain fell. 

 M 10 ... 77 



2.52 



Occober 1.45 



November ... 2.57 

 December ... 2.19 



« • • 



• • • 



• ■ - 



9 



11 



12 



12 



Total 21.83 ... 121 



_ _ I know of nothing more 



grateful to our feelings than a deliberate experiment 

 proving successful. I had an idea, from ofertrvatkm- 



on ^ other plants, that a dry ripe bulb of Tropseolum 



The mean. pressure of the atmosphere was 29;4 



Tlie mean temperature was * , % 48.52 



Th^ mean la.ll of rain was 2.48 



— W. W. S. 



Sum ■ Treatment of yi s in Greenhouses. — In a 

 lean-to greenhouse, which the sun at Midsummer leares 

 at ,*j p.m., for years I never could obtain ripe Grapes ; 

 after the half-hardy plants were taken out, there was 

 not, according to ordinary treatment, sufficient length 

 of summer left ; the growths were lanky ; and in Octo- 

 ber, when the house was wanted Again as a greenhouse 

 the Gripes were about half ripe, and no fire seemed to 

 hasten them Enough. This was under the principle of 

 " plenty of air on all day and close early, to shut in the 

 sun heat." I have not much time to give to gardening 

 but I thought that a rapid and sturdy growth mi»ht 

 be obtained with the same trouble or less than 

 before. The following simple management secur* 

 this perfectly: — In the middle of April, all the 

 plants which are required to be kept in form 

 are removed elsewhere. Alternate lights in the roof 

 are slid down 6 or 7 inches, and not moved a«ain 

 under any circumstances during the whole summer • 

 the door and lower windows always kept closed ; and 

 the house and Vines syringed to soaking with soft water 

 every morning, at 8, in hot weather, and, on bright days 

 again at n n. I had the last two years, in September 

 and October, as fine Hamburgh and Chasselas Grapes 

 as ever were seen. The whole advantage of the system 

 seems to arise from the very high temperature obtained 

 during sun-light, as high sometimes as 110° Fahr. - 

 while the great moisture prevents parching, and, on 

 the sun leaving, all excitement ceases, and the effects 

 of a natural even ng are in some measure induced 

 I cannot understand why, to this day, so many expe- 

 rienced gardeners recommend "shutting in plenty of 

 sun heat." Surely the temperature should decline with 

 the light. I believe a little actual frost would do less 

 harm. The late Mr. Andrew Knight tried and approved 

 of syringing overhead with the coldest water as soon as 

 the sun was down, giving all excitement an instantaneous 

 check ; and I should adopt this, only I cannot dispense 

 with the moisture at my other times, and syringi no- three 

 times a day would be too much. W. T.B., WitJ . 



liar i Plants.— Some time since I was in mpany 

 with a gentleman who had spent several seasons on the 

 Himalaya mountains. He was fond of gardening and 

 our convert ion nuicklv tnr»i«ri nr, c „™~ ~r i*^°' 



™tv. ; £ J . r "*— „"— ouu J w »- ^iiououcnarons 



came m for their share of attention, and I elicited from 



him, that often the blossoms of thousands on their 



native hills are cut off by the spring frosts, precisely as 



he early varieties suffer in the majority of seasons in 



this country. On the Himalayas the plants on the 



southern slopes of the ridges are the invariable sufferers, 



while those on the northern seldom or never MKtain an v 



injury. Ihis he justly attributes to the influence of the 



sun on the frozen plants. Their energies are artaised by 



the return of spring, mild days often succeed each other • 



a sharp frost follows accompanied by a bright morning 



sun and the result is t*e death of the tenderer part of 



all the plants subject to such influence. Now, although 



___ r 7 „ desideratum, b 8^4 



recognised. By judicious care, it becomes an 

 able acquisition to our gardens. Some weeks?* 

 was going through a very pretty garden, 

 panied by the ^proprietor, and as we were >^ 

 a flower border with a north aspect, careftillyiJ3 

 from the south by a high wall, 1 was struck Wkifcfe 

 Rhododendron dauricum a mass of blooms. 

 I could not help admiring it. Its owner made fcfal. 

 lowing statement to me :— " I h a ve» possessed ttaife* 

 said he " for several years. ' Till the season US* \m 

 it occupied the warm nook you see yonder ; itntfaA 

 year after year, abuniiance of K 



enjoyed them in their beauty. Ten to one butiim 

 frost, followed by a si* 



if a few blossoms did struggle into light, ihdy werepwi 

 unsightly tilings. A friend advised me to give it 

 northern aspect, and with what suce*te you we t 

 witness." The management of out-door plaate ie i 

 subject worthy of attention. Isltail some foy tefti 

 return to the subject. G, L. 



Bees. — I find my bees to be as active this jm'u 



usual, perhaps your correspondent's- bees are vut f 

 dead. They should be examined, for they mayflpifc 



feeding ; or if dead, the hives should be moved. Li 







which a Certificate of Merit was a\t 

 Standish and Noble produced a beautiful new Una 

 striped Azalea, named vittata, from China, wW 





Horticultural, April 1. — Dr. Daniel, 

 in the chair. Messrs. Veitch sent a plant in a pot, ai 

 a cut specimen, from a bush growing in the open me. 

 of the Darwin Berberry (Berberis Darwinii),i m 

 small-leaved evergreen shrub, from Patagonia. Tfc 

 proves to be a species whose importance it isiij 

 impossible to overrate, inasmuch as it is exceedipf 

 handsome, perfectly hardy, and naturally produwi 

 rich orange blossoms in great prolusion durinj fe 

 early months of the year. Indeed for general jak« 

 have nothing at present at all to be compared m« 

 fine Berberry. A Large Silver Medal was awarW \t 

 The same nurserymen also furnished a bloom of* 

 pretty light-coloured striped Camellia, named Coo** 

 of Orkney.— Messrs. Hayes, of Lower Edm 



municated two nicely-managed plants of tree »w"V 

 • ■ - — ■•- * »■ •■ - "*ardeu,— M&' 



r 



mises to be an acquisition. It is quite ^f *?JS 

 of the striped kinds and very early. A * - 

 Medal was awarded it. The same nm^rj^™ 



contributed a flowering plant of Vi ^ um m T5 

 phalum, raised from a cutting struck last ^J^j 

 Limonia laureola (SkimmU japoni<»)^s*«^ 



shrub, fr 



about IviiiLisujLivijit.-. m a/vv" .... . 



fruit of brilhant 



autumn. A Certificate' of Merit was awarded 1 u 

 Alessi-s. H.'i;<!er S o:i, of lmc-np V \^f "•* r j 

 nium iauthi.mm, a promising greenhouse p^ 

 Ageratum-like flowers, which were reporteu ^ 

 in perfection ; and a charming collection oi a 

 which the following are the names oi someoi ^ 

 Li'lht blue: Omudates, Robinson, f*n» "| tf 

 Vi tte, Grand Lilac, and I'asse tout (doaw ^ 

 bh .- Laurens Koster (double), 1'r.nce van. ^ 



Emicus, Bar. -n vanThuyll, Prince Oscar, ana .^ 

 Drvfhout (double.) Violet : Tubal Cain, ^ ^ 

 and Prince Albert; the latter is yerj • ^ 

 Helen, Grand Vainqueur, Grand \ loette, % ^ 



and A la mode Epuisee, doub te ^' AbDS }b* 

 centre. Blush : Grandeur de MeneiUea^J ^ 

 (double), Triumph Blandi**, ^^ iottej** 



wnicn is new to tiymtamuB. ** A»t"r 



Paulowna, Heroine (double). n - xt'Zh $&&'&. 

 Red: Herstelde Vreede, Dieb, ?tJ ftter loo (^ 

 Appeluis, Le Francq de Berkhey, and vv a ^^ 

 Liyht red : La Dan^e du Laack, and ^ rf ^ 

 The same nurserymen also sent f xam e ^>*j 

 among «hieh the best were, Nan«ette, 3^?. 

 Radiator, white with a yellow centre. 



India, and saiaw«' 

 hire. ItwwsB^JJ 

 natural character is to produce fruit of ^S^-ft* 





Pkm : L' Unique, a variety 



